The English actor, best known for his role in the romantic drama The English
Patient, has disclosed how he once had talks about becoming the next James
Bond

Ralph Fiennes was once considered for the role of James Bond but said he thought he would have made a “terrible” 007.

The English actor, best known for his role in the romantic drama The English Patient describes in an interview in this week’s Seven magazine how he met Bond producer, Albert “Cubby” Broccoli 20 years ago to discuss the part.

“There was a conversation that was great and a meeting with Cubby Broccoli [who died in 1996], that was terrific,” said Fiennes. “I think that’s all I can say, except that it didn’t lead to anything on both sides. I don’t think I felt ready to commit and I think they were looking at Pierce [Brosnan].”

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Brosnan, now 60, played Bond four times, between 1995 and 2005, before handing over to the current 007, Daniel Craig.

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Later this year Fiennes will star alongside Craig, 45, when he takes over from Dame Judi Dench as M in the next instalment of the franchise, Bond 24.

Fiennes, 51, who also appeared in Schindler’s List, said he had no regrets about not being Bond and was looking forward to playing M – the fictional head of MI6. “I think I would’ve been a terrible Bond, actually. I think I’m happier playing M. And I think Daniel Craig is a brilliant Bond.”

Fiennes’s latest film, The Grand Budapest Hotel, is written and directed by Wes Anderson, who also directed The Royal Tenenbaums.

It tells the story of a hotel concierge, Gustave H, played by Fiennes, and his quest to prove his innocence after he is framed for the murder of his father. It is a role Fiennes can relate to, he said, having once worked as a hall porter at Brown’s Hotel, in London, changing shower curtains and vacuuming corridors.

“There was a slightly Gustave-like waiter who ran the English tea at Brown’s,” he said. “He was a showman.”

Anderson has said Fiennes was the only actor he considered for the role of Gustave. “I’m told that when he wrote it I was very present in the conception of it,” Fiennes said.